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4A Games, the Ukrainian studio behind the Metro series, is preparing to release Metro 2039, the next entry in the post-apocalyptic saga that began with Metro 2033 in 2010 and continued through Metro Exodus in 2019. Published by Deep Silver and based on the novels of Dmitry Glukhovsky, the new title is slated for release in February 2027. Unlike Exodus, which ended on a note of cautious optimism, Metro 2039 is shaping up to be the bleakest chapter yet, a shift the developers attribute directly to Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which began in February 2022 and has continued ever since.

That invasion has not been a distant backdrop for 4A Games but a daily reality. Much of the studio's work is carried out amid power cuts, air-raid warnings and the threat of drone strikes, with staff unsure from one day to the next whether they will be able to reach loved ones or return home safely. Executive producer Jon Bloch has described how the team effectively tore up its original plans once the war began, rebuilding the story almost from scratch so that it could reflect what the team and the wider country were living through, rather than continuing with ideas conceived before 2022.

The tonal shift is most evident in how the game handles morality. Bloch has explained that earlier Metro titles were built around the idea of preventing conflict, encouraging players to weigh events in shades of grey and decide for themselves what was right or wrong. With the studio now four and a half years into living under war, he says that ambiguity no longer felt honest; a story about authoritarian rule taking hold, he argues, allows for less doubt about where the evil lies. Creative director Andriy Shevchenko has summed up the result as 'a game without heroes,' set in a world where altruism has largely given way to self-interest. The new protagonist, known only as the Stranger, is depicted as acting from personal motive rather than nobility, and is voiced for the first time in a mainline Metro game, drawn back into Moscow's tunnels to confront a newly unified, totalitarian faction called the Novoreich, led by a returning antagonist known as Hunter.

Coverage of the game varies in focus. One outlet's preview centres on hands-on time with an in-progress demo, describing a tense early scene in which the Stranger negotiates with a rival faction inside a cramped underground office before setting out into the tunnels, alongside glimpses of ordinary survivors that flesh out the game's grim atmosphere. Another account leans more heavily on direct interview material with Bloch, using his own words to explain the deliberate move away from moral ambiguity and to detail the Novoreich regime and its leadership. A third report, focused on the return to a Moscow setting and echoes of Exodus-style design, was largely unavailable in substantive form, consisting mainly of site navigation and membership prompts rather than reporting, which limits direct comparison with the other two accounts.

Where outlets differ

One outlet emphasises hands-on demo impressions, describing specific early scenes played by its journalist, while another relies primarily on direct quotes from executive producer Jon Bloch to explain the narrative rationale.

The interview-led account goes into more detail on the antagonist faction (the Novoreich) and its leader Hunter, a returning series character, which the demo-focused account does not dwell on.

The third source's actual editorial content on the game could not be assessed, as the retrieved text consisted almost entirely of site membership and navigation boilerplate rather than reporting, so its stated angle (a Moscow setting blended with open-world elements from Exodus) is based only on its headline.

• www.polygon.com
• www.eurogamer.net
• www.pcgamer.com